


All I Want to Do is Stay

by hopeless_eccentric



Series: (Free! That's right! Free!) Penumbra Commissions [18]
Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Non-Binary Character, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Future Fic, Minor Angst, Nonbinary Juno Steel, Other, Post-Canon, Retirement, Tenderness, just. kabert. please. something like this., little spoon Juno Steel RIGHTS, they're married in this one guys, vaguely because it's really minor angst i promise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:27:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27157271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopeless_eccentric/pseuds/hopeless_eccentric
Summary: Juno admitted to being nervous when that heady tour across the stars arm in arm with Peter Nureyev came to its grand finale. At that point Nureyev had pressed a set of house keys into his hands and insisted that he had always wanted to live long enough to retire.(Free!) Commission for an anon on tumblr!! I'm still taking free penumbra commissions on my tumblr (hopeless-eccentric), so go check that out if you're curious!!
Relationships: Peter Nureyev/Juno Steel
Series: (Free! That's right! Free!) Penumbra Commissions [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1921492
Comments: 41
Kudos: 152





	All I Want to Do is Stay

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all!! This one is soft as fuck do enjoy
> 
> Content warnings for minor miscommunication (someone wrongly assumes they are being left in the middle of the night), food mention

With a dull ache between his ribs and a withered sigh on his lips, Juno awoke to an empty bed.

He tried to tell himself to calm down, and that Nureyev must have only parted his company to go to the bathroom or get some fresh air, for he too was struggling to acclimate to a life of safety. Even if the dent at Juno’s side still sat in the mattress and the ghost of Nureyev’s embrace still haunted his skin, the bed had since gone cold in his absence.

Juno admitted to being nervous when that heady tour across the stars arm in arm with Peter Nureyev came to its grand finale. At that point Nureyev had pressed a set of house keys into his hands and insisted that he had always wanted to live long enough to retire. 

Nureyev had been as carefree and light as ever when marrying Juno and promising to pluck the stars from the sky by hand if it would make him happy. However, when he moved into the new house, he took with him the kind of baggage that came with a total change in lifestyle, even if it was his suggestion. 

Juno pretended not to notice that Nureyev kept a suitcase packed at all times, even with the problems of the past no longer nipping at their heels. Peter insisted on taking longer and longer excursions away from home, whether they be a weekend on another planet nearby or merely a tour of the local aerospace, just so he could breathe. Sometimes Juno joined him, sometimes not. Every time he left, he promised to come back, and each and every time, he made good on that promise.

Even if he hadn’t been a detective in more than a decade, Juno knew that being in one place for too long made Nureyev nervous, and he had just resigned himself to a lifetime of it.

Despite this, Nureyev seemed to throw him into domestic life with his full force. He dragged Juno back to bed in the mornings and complained if he hogged the sheets. He wore new aliases to dinner just to keep himself entertained or as an excuse to wear a new style of outfit. During lazy mornings, he draped himself around Juno while he cooked and even tried to learn how to do so for himself.

Even with his obvious nerves, Peter didn’t seem like he was going to leave. When he stood to go anywhere by night, he pressed a kiss to Juno’s hairline and murmured something in his ear. If that didn’t rouse him, he left a scribbled note signed with a heart or a freshly applied red kiss.

However, Juno couldn’t argue with his vision. As dark as it was, he could clearly make out Nureyev on the other side of the room, eyes wild and hands frantically zipping up his suitcase.

“Nureyev?” Juno heard himself murmur before he knew he was even speaking.

He hoped every incomprehensible thought tearing through his mind in that moment might express itself in that single, slurred syllable. He prayed Nureyev might understand that it was a plea and an adoration and a question all at once, and that for the first time in years, he hoped beyond hope that Nureyev might remember another name slurred out in another bedroom a million years ago.

“One moment, dear,” Nureyev returned, words soft, yet broken as he continued to fight the zipper.

“Honey, what are you doing?” Juno continued, trying and failing to wake his words past their sleepy, helpless yawn.

“Fighting this wretched suitcase,” Peter huffed.

Juno remembered the suitcase Nureyev preferred to keep packed, a mess of clothes rolled tight and bound together to fit as much of his life as possible into a single bag. The old case was black and formal, looking more like some kind of ancient trunk than it did a vacationer’s luggage. However, the one in which he tried to fit a life that had grown roots and settled into a single location had been a gift at their wedding, a jumpstart that dream of seeing everything man had ever seen before.

He also remembered a conversation, sleep-addled and rose colored in his memory. Nureyev had stroked his cheek with a hand that bore a brand-new wedding ring and told him that he had spent his entire life terrorized by a nebulous future that gnashed at him with razored fangs, and yet, he couldn’t help but count down the days until he was promised a future with him. Juno had kissed him and told him that they were already living it, so long as nothing horrible happened to the engagement. 

Nothing horrible had happened to the engagement. Nureyev wore a constellation in each eye and a star in his smile the entire time. Adrenaline seized Juno too tight to remember all of his vows, but he distinctly remembered Nureyev saying that, for someone who hated the concept of aging as much as he did, he couldn’t help but feel lucky that he got to grow old with Juno Steel.

And yet, Juno had woken alone.

“Why?” He heard himself choke out before his eyes could register the situation enough to sting.

Nureyev, becoming gradually clearer as Juno’s vision adjusted and the black of night morphed into a soft purple-gray, sighed. He froze on the spot, save for dropping the suitcase to the floor with an odd lack of a thunk.

“I can’t do this forever,” he admitted.

“You—” Juno bit, though his anger flickered in and out of focus like a candle against a battering night wind.

“I can’t spend my entire life feeling like I need to run, my love,” Nureyev continued. “I’m sorry if I woke you, but I’m afraid this decision hasn’t agreed to my sleep schedule.”

“So you’re just gonna leave?”

Nureyev froze.

“Beg pardon?”

“I—” Juno tried to stammer out, finding his tongue was still asleep, even if his mind was racing at a million thoughts per second.

“Oh, sweetheart,” Nureyev breathed, face having contorted and softened all at once. “I’m not going anywhere.”

He discarded the bag again, uncaring if the disobedient cover flopped open upon the floor, revealing the suitcase to be empty for the first time since Nureyev had packed it with the bare essentials years prior. Juno felt his jaw fall open in tandem, though he did not have long to hold the expression before Nureyev had pulled him halfway from the bed and into a desperate hug.

“I thought it was about time I unpacked that bag,” Peter murmured against the top of Juno’s head, lips still lost among his curls from where he had pressed a kiss mere moments ago.

“I—I thought you were gonna leave,” Juno admitted, pretending he didn’t hear himself sniff and glad he was able to press his face into Nureyev’s sleep shirt that he was sure, at some point, had been his own.

“My love,” Nureyev sighed as he sank down onto the mattress at Juno’s side. He was tangled in the embrace, but he didn’t seem to care. “There is nothing I would rather do but stay.”

They held each other close that night, though Juno didn’t mind if his arms and shoulders ached the next morning. His grabbing squid of a husband continued to hold him close and tight, not sated until he had all but smothered a faux-miffed Juno in a warm and gangly hug. Juno made a crack about getting tangled with an affectionate giraffe and Nureyev laughed, seemingly unaware of the flood of warmth his wife felt in his chest at the sound.

Nureyev didn’t sleep well for the first few nights after he unpacked the suitcase, for a packed bag had been his home for as long as he had known the meaning of the word. Juno ensured he always had company all the while, even if he couldn’t reach into Peter’s head and fix the problem himself.

His husband hadn’t ever lived in that sense before, and Juno anticipated a learning curve. He anticipated communication as a necessity and short vacations being frequent, at least until the two of them figured out how to slow their lives down and exist like people who weren’t wanted for a thousand different crimes across the galaxy.

He didn’t particularly care how long it would take to find their normal, or at least whatever version of it they settled on. Juno was more than willing to wait.

**Author's Note:**

> hhHhh somft
> 
> Thank you all so much for reading!! Make sure to SMASH that kudos button and leave a comment below or ill HUG you
> 
> Check out my tumblr @hopeless-eccentric (where i am still taking free penumbra commissions!!!) or my twitter, @withane22 !!


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